The word "relationship" has been so overused and under-lived that it would be better banned or labeled "archaic." The need exists, however, a human yearning for close, sustained attachment. Is it possible? A week into 2010, its lack explains the loss so many feel in the world at large and themselves in particular. ...more

January 8, 2010

NBC's disappointing experiment with Jay Leno's prime-time show may end with Leno back in late-night and the venerable "Tonight Show" and its freshman host, Conan O'Brien, pushed to a midnight slot. ...more

January 7, 2010

When federal, state and Pasco County officials started talking about using public money to counteract the collapse of the housing market and the related mortgage foreclosure problem, we wondered whether this would just delay the inevitable. The housing boom, whatever its cause, got too many people into mortgage debt they had no hope of repaying, especially once the inflated value of their houses collapsed. No amount of temporary foreclosure forbearance was going to change that unfortunate reality. According to the lead article in the Jan. 2 edition of The New York Times, our concerns were justified. ...more

January 6, 2010

Fired Texas Tech coach Mike Leach says he did not mistreat a player after a concussion. ...more

January 2, 2010

There are few things as mystifying as the dissonance of modern American progressivism. And nowhere is that dissonance more apparent than on the bright line dividing foreign and domestic policy. ...more

January 2, 2010

David Levine, 83, an artist whose witty caricatures illustrated The New York Review of Books for more than 40 years, died Tuesday at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan of prostate cancer and complications from other ailments. Levine's drawings of politicians, celebrities, writers and historical figures typically had large heads and exaggerated features - Albert Einstein with a nimbus of hair, Richard Nixon all 5 o'clock shadow and ski-slope nose. ...more

December 31, 2009

According to an article published earlier this week in The New York Times, something people would have thought impossible a few years ago, when the price of gasoline as well above $4 a gallon, has been happening of late. U.S. oil refineries have been closing. There hasn't been a refinery built in this country since 1979, but a prolonged drop in the demand for gasoline by U.S. motorists over the last few years has produced excess refining capacity that is being idled. The lengthy recession is credited with much of the slump in demand, but more fuel-efficient vehicles could be playing a role as well. ...more

December 30, 2009

Too bad Barack Obama hasn't followed through on his promises of legislative transparency. Then we all could have watched Harry Reid live on C-SPAN handing an oversized Publishers Clearing House-style $100 million check to Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson. ...more

December 30, 2009

Google Inc. is determined to gain more influence over how the Web is used on mobile phones, even if the next step in the quest tramples some of the relationships forged during its two-year expansion into the wireless industry. ...more

December 21, 2009

Former NHL player Reggie Fleming, who died in July, had brain damage due to repeated head trauma, linking hockey for the first time to a condition usually found in boxers, the New York Times reported Friday. ...more

December 18, 2009